


Thinking of You

by Ghostinthehouse



Series: Touch Me Not [2]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-10-28 06:37:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20774177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghostinthehouse/pseuds/Ghostinthehouse
Summary: Warlock Dowling finds a card by his bed when he returns from his 12th birthday party.





	Thinking of You

Warlock Dowling finds a card by his bed when he returns from his so-called 12th birthday party. (It isn't as bad as his 11th birthday was last year, but it still wasn't much fun.) There's an apple tree on the front, like the one he used to sit under with Nanny in England, and a phone number written on the inside, opposite birthday wishes from Nanny and Brother Francis. The envelope is heavy, and when he tips it up, a thin neck chain slithers out, like the one Nanny used to wear under her blouse, and a tiny charm to hang on it. Warlock cradles them for moment, knowing how much his father will hate him wearing jewelry, and then he defiantly slides the snake charm (almost identical to Nanny's tattoo) onto the chain and drapes it over his head. It sits comfortably hidden under his shirt, and the charm slips down until it hangs over his heart. Sometimes, when things get very bad, he holds it tight in his fist and remembers the days he felt safe, and wanted, and cared for. He doesn't phone.

On his thirteenth birthday, Warlock gets his own phone from his parents, and dinner out. Except his father gets called away, so he's left sitting in unhappy silence with the mother who never knew how to talk to him. When he gets home, he flees to his room.

There's a card, still in its envelope, lying on his bed. He curls up tight beside it and peels the seal open. It shows an adult and child in silhouette, sitting looking up at the stars and moon, and though Warlock can't see them, he imagines the adult one is wearing sunglasses. There's another charm in there too, and he ducks out of his necklace only long enough to slide the apple onto the chain beside the snake. The phone number is there again too, and in a moment of defiance he saves it as the first number in his new phone and tags it "Home". He doesn't call. It's enough, on nights when he's whisper-singing himself to sleep with Nanny's lullaby, that it's there.

On his fourteenth birthday, he gets a feather charm in his card, and watches the boy he has a crush on making out with the girls he's supposed to be flirting with himself. He calls the number for the first time, but gets only a recorded message. _You know what to do, do it with style! _He hangs up without leaving a reply, and cries himself silently to sleep. With style.

His fifteenth (crescent moon), sixteenth (acorn), and seventeenth (star) birthdays slip past in a haze of stubbornness and resentment. The cards keep coming, and the charms. The phone number never changes. He works for his grades in anger and defiance, refusing to be anything like his father, and gets them as high as he can. _Do anything you want. Be anything you want. Rule the world. Do it with style._ He thinks about phoning, but what could he say? You left like everyone leaves, Nanny. If you're 'Thinking of me' like all your cards say, why aren't you here? He knows why. His father demanded it, insisting that while Warlock was a child, he was under his father's rule, and eleven was too old for a boy to need a Nanny.

The day he hits eighteen and adulthood, he's travelling, sitting in a transport lounge waiting for his connection, when the card appears on top of of his suitcase. He grabs it with shaking hands and peels it open. The card shows sister snake coiled in a sunny patch of flowers. The charm is a pair of miniature sunglasses. The phone number - he checks it one last time - still hasn't changed. Nor has the message, nor the apparent patience behind it. He takes a long breath, adds the new charm to the others, and grips the lot in his fist as he dials. Somebody picks up this time. "Nanny," he says, "it's Warlock," and to his eternal embarrassment, his voice cracks on the words. "Can I- Can I still come home?"

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to see the actual reunion, it can be found here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20425802/chapters/51580234


End file.
